Dialing "0", actually talking to a real (normally female) person and asking to make a "collect" call. RING-- "Hello." "Collect call from Rusty Trigger. Will you accept charges?"
I thought it was really neat (10 years old) to dial "0" and ask for information for some distant city.
Mom calling her 5 sisters on CHRISTmas day (1950's). "Operator, I'd like (number) in Anytown, USA." "That number is busy. Would you like me to try again later?" "Yes. My number is 1234." (No area code or prefix in "Smalltown, USA) Thirty minutes later, the phone rang and suddenly, you were talking to somebody you knew, halfway across America! 🤯 AWESOME! The miracles of modern technology!
True story. I went to school in a small town. Bobo wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but everybody in town knew and took care of Bobo.
At night, the kids hung out at Jenkins Sinclair station out on the "Big Highway". One night, a car came barreling through town and wrecked out near the service station. As the local hangouts headed to the wreck, one turned around and told Bobo, "Bobo! Call an ambulance! Quick!" Bobo ran to the nearby phone booth, grabbed the phone and dialed "0". When the operator (a real person!) answered, Bobo blurted out, "Ambulance, this is Bobo! Come quick!" and hung up.
Miracle of miracle, the operator knew Bobo and where he hung out at night. She had an ambulance headed to "Bobo" in mere seconds. Can't do that today with "9-1-1 Dial-a-Prayer"!
